Another mass shooting in the US state of Texas has reportedly left at least five people killed and more than 21 others injured while an earlier shooting incident at a high school football game in the southeastern state of Alabama left 10 teenagers wounded.
The Texas shooting began in the western city of Midland Saturday afternoon, where up to three suspects were seen shooting randomly at bystanders at a Home Depot department store before moving on to a Movie theatre in neighbouring city of Odessa, where one of the shooters was reported shot and killed by police.
“It has been confirmed that the active shooter was shot and killed at the Cinergy in Odessa,” the Midland Police Department declared in a Facebook post, adding: “There is no active shooter at this time. All agencies are investigating reports of possible suspects.”
“We believe there are two shooters in two separate vehicles. One suspect is believed to be at the Cinergy [theatre] in Midland and the other is believed to be driving on Loop 250 in Midland. The two vehicles in question are: gold/white small Toyota truck and a USPS Postal Van. Please stay away from these areas and stay indoors,” the police statement further said.
Moreover, Midland’s Mayor Jerry Morales was also cited in local press reports as saying that two suspects and a possible third shooter were firing randomly at passers-by, initially adding: “We have two fatalities and up to 20 injuries.”
Morales further stated that one of the suspected shooters was shot and wounded by police, saying: “One suspect is in custody. I’m not sure if he is alive.” However, later reports said the suspect was killed by police, identifying him as 30-year-old white man.
It is not yet clear what motivated the mass carnage and whether the incident was racially motivated as was the case in a massacre a month earlier the Texas city of El Paso, where a white young male targeted mostly native Mexican residents, killing 22 and wounding nearly 30 more.
In the Alabama shooting, a 17-year-old was apprehended by police officers after 10 teenagers – ranging in age from 15 to 18 — were shot following a high school football game in the city of Mobile.
The shooting victims were taken to a local hospital Saturday morning as Mobile Police Department spokesman Laderrick Dubose identified the teenage shooter as Deangelo Parnell, further declaring that there were no fatalities as the result of the incident.
Meanwhile, Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste admonished young people for “bringing their beefs that they have with each other in their neighbourhoods” into public settings and “putting people in harm’s way.”
“Why are young people bringing this type of violence to public events?” Battiste said at a news conference. “We’re gonna have to be more aggressive on our end as a city as to how we hold these individuals accountable.”
The incident “may have been a directed threat at one or two individuals and other people just happened to fall prey to their carelessness,” he further added.
In yet another recent US mass shooting in early August nine people were killed and 17 others were left wounded in Dayton, Ohio. – Press TV.
